Morphology by itself in planning the production of spoken words

The authors report a study in Dutch that used an on-line preparation paradigm to test the issue of semantic dependency versus morphological autonomy in the production of polymorphemic words. Semantically transparent complex words (like input in English) and semantically opaque complex words (like invoice) showed clear evidence of morphological structure in word-form encoding, since both exhibited an equally large preparation effect that was much greater than that for morphologically simple words (like insect). These results suggest that morphemes may be planning units in the production of complex words, without making a semantic contribution, thereby supporting the autonomy view. Language production establishes itself as a domain in which morphology may operate "by itself' (Aronoff, 1994) without recourse to meaning.